First Chapters
by McWhite
Summary: A collection of first chapters of some of the stories I am currently working on. Feel free to take a look at the ideas I'm chasing. I mostly created this 'story' for challenge responses (though I will not put up one that I don't intend to finish). Some of these are crossovers or AU, but all contain Harry Potter, so for convenience that is the category I chose for this collection.
1. Fate's Repentance - Harry Potter LoL

_Hi :)_

 _It's me. First of all, I am sorry that this is not a full story. The reason is as follows: I am currently working on several stories and I noticed that due to my usual habit of more or less finishing stories before putting them on here, together with working on several at a time (because that is how my head works) it takes a long time for anything to be finished. Add to that that due to work I only really have time to write on Weekends and it takes even longer._ _While I have every intention to finish all stories I am working at, it will take some time to achieve that._

 _Now some of the stories I am working on are attempted answers to challenges I found interesting while browsing around and that wouldn't stay out of my head. Now, while I still want to at least have a considerable amount written before starting to put any stories on here, I also don't want to wait that long for the challengers to at least get an idea of what I am trying to do (and maybe give some feedback on whether or not they feel their challenge sufficiently met if they want to). So as a compromise I decided to put a collection of first chapters up here._ _If other's want to comment on something, feel free to do so, I will definitely read it._

 _As I said above, I currently have every intention of finishing all stories I put up in this collection (though of course things can get between one and one's plans). Some of the stories, like this very first one, are crossovers (if so then currently only with League of Legends Lore). I do own neither Harry Potter nor League of Legends. I will put an author note at the beginning of each in order to point out what challenge it originates from and also include whether it is a crossover or not in the title._

 _This first one is meant to be an answer to the Fate's Repentance Challenge, given by Dis Lexic in DZ2's challenges forum._

* * *

 **Fate's Repentance - Harry Potter/League of Legends Crossover  
**

It was around lunchtime, as Luxanna Crownguard stepped into one of the many cafeterias residing within the Institute of War. There had been no matches during the last two weeks and so she, as many others, had decided to go home, in her case to the City State of Demacia. This afternoon, there would be a few show matches and tomorrow the tournaments and challenges would start again, and so she had had to return to the institute. Not that she particularly minded coming back. Returning to Demacia during longer breaks was more of a duty than anything else, really, but Luxanna, or Lux as she usually introduced herself, was nothing if not dutiful.

She glanced around the cafeteria and found a few of her closer acquaintances sharing a table more in the middle of the room. She purposefully walked towards them, head held high, a smile on her face, just as a daughter of house Crownguard should. Irelia was the first to notice her, probably because she was sitting directly opposite from where Lux was coming from. The Captain of the Ionian Guard smiled and nodded towards her in greeting, and Lux felt her own smile become less forced. She made the last few steps towards their table, just as Irelia's fellow Ionians turned around to find out who Irelia had been nodding to.

Lux tended to avoid the other Demacian champions as good as she could. She had even given up hope to get her brother back, after five years of observing him and trying to talk to him as they had when they had been children. Instead of a brother, she now had the 'Might of Demacia', a soldier of highest Moral Superiority. Another thing she had to thank her parents for. At least, in those five years, she had learned that the brother she still remembered was not fully gone. Sometimes, on the battlefield, facing certain opponents, she believed she could still see the playful, fun Garen she once knew. However, that made it even harder for her to recognise that she couldn't reach him, no matter how hard she tried. So now, she avoided even him.

"Lux, you're back." That was Karma, stating the obvious. Sometimes Lux wondered if you had to state the obvious like that if you wanted to get a title like 'the Enlightened One'. But then again, it was better than 'Lady of Luminosity'. Luxanna Crownguard, the Lady of Luminosity. Pah. Nonetheless her smile remained in place, as she nodded to Karma. Despite her thoughts, she did indeed have nothing but respect for the woman.

To Irelia's other side sat Lee Sin, another person that Lux deeply respected. Sometimes she thought that her parents might be much happier, had they had Karma, Lee Sin or Irelia as their second child, rather than herself.

"How have your trips home been?" Lux asked, looking for a way to make conversation.

"It was nice to go back to the old village." Karma said with a smile on her face. "Sad that Irelia couldn't make it."

Lux looked to the other woman in surprise.

"I am the chosen champion of the Ionian people. Someone has to stay here when everyone else leaves, and that should be me." She explained.

Lux simply nodded, thinking it would be nicer for both of them if she and Irelia could swap places. She knew Irelia loved her homeland and it must be hard for her to be away from it for so long.

Lux hated to be so negative, but whenever she came back from Demacia, she just couldn't help it. It usually took her a few days to shake it off. Not that she didn't like Demacia. In fact she loved her home. To her it embodied everything that was good and right with the world. The people living there were her problem. Not even all of them. The leaders. They left so little room for an individual to digress from the norm, especially for themselves. Failure to adhere to even the simplest and most unimportant moral codex was inacceptable for a person of, for example, Lux's standing. All individuality was sacrificed for the duty to ones home and in order to be a good example for those looking up to you.

"Have you heard the rumours about the new champion?"

Lux raised her eyebrows. She had come from the teleport chamber directly to the cafeteria to have lunch and hadn't really talked to anyone yet.

"A new champion?"

"Yes, some man, that just appeared in front of the doors two or three days after holidays started." Irelia elaborated. "I've not yet seen him myself. There are all kinds of rumours going around about his Judgement."

Lux gave an involuntary shudder as she thought about what the Institute so calmly referred to as 'Judgement'. She certainly didn't like to be reminded of her own, though, from some of the stories she had been told, hers seemed to have gone especially bad. Then again, there were so many champions and nearly none of them talked about their Judgements, so Lux assumed she was at least in somewhat good company.

"How come you haven't seen him yet, if he has been here for a week?" Karma asked.

"He seems to be avoiding people." Irelia answered with a shrug. "I heard he was seen in the library a few times, but other than that no one really knows much. Then again the Institute is quite big and there weren't a lot of people to lead him around until today. So possibly it was just by accident that he avoided us others. It's weird though that the High Council would be that tight lipped about a new champion."

Lux personally thought that that was not the only weird thing. By now, the Institute had many champions at its disposal and it had become harder for new champions to be accepted. For that guy to just appear and be a champion a few days later, he must hold considerable interest for… somebody. She decided to ask about the new champion's alignment. If there was another Noxian champion in the league, the Demacians would go crazy. Sadly, as she started talking, she didn't notice that the attention of her three companions was focused on a point behind her.

"Do you know if he is affiliated with anyone?"

Suddenly a cold voice came from behind her. "Not that I know of."

Lux flinched and turned around, looking up to where the voice had come from. She found herself staring into shining emerald eyes and gulped at the expressionless mask on his face.

"It's not nice to talk about people behind their backs, Lady…?" The man said with a voice that was as emotionless as his face was.

"Crownguard," Lux answered automatically, before she could shake herself out of her embarrassment. "I mean Luxanna, ah, I mean Lux will be fine. And if you avoid people, you shouldn't be too surprised if they try to find out what little information is available by talking about you to others." Wait, wasn't that one of the things that she hated herself when it happened to her?

The man raised his eyebrows slightly. He seemed… ordinary, apart from his eyes. A few muscles, but nothing as great as most of the warriors within the league had. A mop of unruly black hair. Nothing so far that would warrant as much interest as he obviously got from the High Council.

"You must be mistaken, Lady Lux, I'm not avoiding people." The man said with amusement in his voice.

"Then how come nearly no one here knows anything about you, not even your name?" Lux asked in a challenging way.

"Maybe they never asked? A great few people came by me in the library, but none of them ever talked to me." The man said as if that explained everything.

"So it is the obligation of us others to come and talk to you, when you are the new one?" Lux didn't really know why she was so aggressive. Later, she would attribute it to the bad mood she still had remaining from her 'holidays', because really, the man in front of her didn't do anything to warrant it.

"I wouldn't say obligation, Lady Lux. Just, while I am by no ways an expert in social studies, in my unlearned opinion, talking to the person you want to know things about seems conductive to getting the information you seek."

Lux blinked a few times but couldn't really come up with anything to say in return. After a few seconds the man continued talking. "Now, if you would excuse us, my young friend made me promise to get her some pie." The man waved to the side behind him and Lux was surprised to see little Annie standing there, holding her stuffed bear and looking somewhat upset in her direction.

She was even more surprised when the man held out a hand and Annie's frown turned into a smile before she took the man's hand, who led her past the table towards the line waiting to be served.

As they were nearly past the table, the man stopped and turned around to look back at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I nearly forgot. Since you practically asked. My name is Harry. Harry Potter."

With that he turned back he and Annie queued for some of the certainly excellent pie that Morgana had baked for the champions' return today.

The group looked towards the pair for a few more seconds, but then Lux couldn't help herself anymore. After the short meeting she had more questions than she had before. Why was this person made a champion? What made him so special? Why was little Annie so trusting with him? Usually she only trusted her stuffed bear, or the real life version of it that she summoned when she became angry. Lux recognised that it was quite out of character for her to engage in gossip, but she wanted to know more.

"Irelia… those rumours about his Judgement. What do they say?"

Irelia seemed nearly as surprised about the question as Lux felt herself, but then she nodded in understanding. "They say there wasn't one."

Lux frowned. "What do you mean, there wasn't one?"

"Just what I said. The rumours say he had some way of keeping the High Council out of his head, so there wasn't an actual Judgement."

Lux felt her eyes widen in renewed surprise. She never knew that such a feat was even possible. She looked towards the man. Oh, what she would give to know if it was true. And if it was, just how he did it.

As she looked back to the people that shared her table, she recognised that Lee Sin and Karma seemed impressed as well. Well, at least she was in good company. Though, on the other hand, those two hadn't made fools out of themselves just a few moments ago. Yep, Lux decided, she definitely hated holidays.

* * *

The show matches that afternoon would be fought on the battle field known as the Howling Abyss. For that arena, champions were usually randomly assigned to the summoners fighting the matches. Lux didn't really like the Howling Abyss, even though her usual style actually worked quite well there. It was the fact that they were all just show matches on Howling Abyss. Lux didn't really have her own agenda of any kind, so gaining favour of the spectators through a show match didn't really help her that much. She was well liked and respected by most people, even those from other factions of Valoran. She didn't know what she would do with any more than that anyway, so show matches held only little appeal for her.

It's not that she generally disliked having some action. She did like training matches, especially those where the champions could fight on their own, and the summoners simply provided the necessary magic to get the champions on the map and protect them from unpleasant things, such as death. It was just show matches. If she gained a lot of favour, her parents and not the least Prince Jarvan would expect her to do great things with it. She wanted to help her homeland, she really did, but she hated the spot light. To her, the spot light in which her family and she stood was responsible for everything that was wrong with her life. That she lost her brother to the military at a young age; that her parents had given her up not long after that; that she had to join the military academy with nine; that no friends were ever good enough for her, according to her parents; the list went on and on. All because she couldn't have been born into a usual Demacian family, no, she had to be a Crownguard. A Crownguard had to an example to all of Demacia at all time. A Crownguard always had to sacrifice everything for their country. A Crownguard couldn't just be happy like normal people could.

Not that her inane and unprecedented talent for light magic had helped her in that regard. Sometimes she wished she had just been born without any powers. She would certainly have been a disappointment to her parents, but at least at some point they would have just left her alone and she could have lived whatever life she judged best. But it was rare that Lux thought like that. She loved the light that always infused and surrounded her too much to ever really imagine being without it.

Anyway, Lux had been lucky and not been chosen for this afternoons matches. Her brother would fight, she knew, but she wasn't sure she wanted to watch it. She scanned the list and quickly found that the new champion hadn't been chosen either. Sad really, at least then she could have seen what he can do. It won't be long though until she would have an opportunity to do so, she assumed. She would still watch one of the matches with the other champions. She enjoyed the company, and really, while she had some reservations about those once very serious battles becoming a spectator sport, even she had to admit there were worst pastimes than watching other champions at work. She had to decide for one, though, as they would be held in parallel. While there was only one original Howling Abyss, the mages of the institute could recreate illusions of the every battle field within the training chambers of the institute. For show matches, those were usually sufficient, even if any official match to settle conflicts always had to be held in the actual, real arena. Finally Lux settled on watching the match that would feature, amongst others, little Annie and Irelia. The two of them, together with the Yordle Lulu, the archer Varus and finally Nunu and his yeti Willop would face a team consisting of Katarina, Shen, Nautilus, Ashe and Tristana on the other side.

A few minutes later, Lux stood in front of the door to the room in which the match would be displayed for those spectators within the institute. She entered, and was surprised to find the room near empty. The only other occupant was the new guy, Harry Potter. Where was Karma or anyone for that matter? The set up of the teams seemed like one of the more interesting ones on the Abyss. Still, taking a deep breath, Lux entered and closed the door behind her, making enough noise in the process for the new guy to look up.

"Oh, hi." He said with that expressionless face of his.

"Hi…" Lux gave back, feeling rather lame in doing so. "Where are all the others?"

"Your friend from before, Karma?" he asked and Lux nodded. "Karma, she was here a few minutes ago but said something about a fight between lovers that she wanted to see."

Lux glanced at the match list again and found the match Karma had been referring to. Leona and Pantheon would face each other. That would be… interesting. But Lux decided to remain, for now, even though she wasn't at all sure how good the company would really be now.

"May I join you still?" she asked, after all she had learned manners from when she was very little and it wouldn't do to forget them, not for a Crownguard.

"Of course." He nodded.

Lux sat down, leaving a few seats between them. After a few moments of awkward silence, Lux decided to try for some communication. "I'm surprised Karma didn't invite you to join them."

He looked to her for a few seconds – those emerald eyes were slightly unnerving, Lux found – before he simply answered. "She tried."

"Why didn't you go with them then? I thought you weren't trying to avoid others?" Lux felt oddly triumphant at having him caught out.

He looked at her again, and the triumphant feeling made way for the feeling of renewed impending embarrassment. "I'm not, but I promised." He finally said, voice still as even as Lux had ever heard.

"Promised?" Lux couldn't stop herself from asking.

"Yes, promised. Annie is quite proud about her skills and her power and she made me promise to watch her the very first opportunity I get." He chuckled, which Lux noted to be the first real emotion she had seen from him. It sounded kind of odd, but nice at the same time and Lux decided that this would be a good topic to keep the conversation on for a little longer.

"So how come you are close to Annie? Are you from the colony she comes from, this Grey Order?"

He shrugged. "No, though I've met a few of them and they seem like nice people."

"Then why?" Lux asked.

He looked back at her again, and Lux felt as if she was judged by some emerald fire in his eyes. Then he looked away again, and Lux was unsure if she had passed the test, until he started talking again.

"I met her on my first day here. She was alone in one of the gardens, crying. I wondered why a child would be alone like this in a place that was called the Institute of War. Then I saw her champion's batch and it was clear to me who she was. It took me a while to get her to talk, but finally she told me that her family couldn't come to visit during the holidays, because her little brother had fallen ill. She couldn't visit them either, because her parents didn't want to risk her getting ill as well."

Lux nodded. She knew Annie a little, well really everyone knew her. Most of the other champions were quite protective of the girl. Not so much if they faced her on the battlefield, because Annie was deadly even if you didn't underestimate her, but outside of it. For a child her age that lived away from her parents most of the year, she was usually upbeat. Lux had asked around a lot before she had found the reason why she was even here. She was too powerful, her magic too much for her body to properly contain. The League matches gave her an outlet to use up some of her magic, and at the same time the summoners of the institute had ways to control her power better than people at her home could.

Lux sometimes thought that there must be more reasons. The Institute, as she learned herself, wasn't an organisation that helped you for nothing in return. Lux suspected that the mages wanted a way to be able to control Annie, afraid of how powerful she might become when she grows up. But Lux didn't have proof of that and even if she had, Annie would still need the help of the people here to survive long enough to actually grow up.

She looked up when she noticed that the new guy's – Harry's – voice had fallen silent, and found him watching her with an amused expression. "Are you alright?" he asked, his voice suddenly gentle. She realised that she had drifted off in thought. "Yes, apologies. So what happened?" she asked, surprised that she found herself truly interested.

"Well, I talked to some of the administrators. I was told that while Annie can talk to her parents, she usually has to go to a summoner or higher in order for them to cast the spell. I thought it would be better for her to be able to talk to her parents without other people's help. There is a spell where I come from, if combined with a few runes on a pair of mirrors it can be used as a communication device. After a bit of haggling I was allowed to create the mirrors and give one to Annie and one to her parents." He explained.

Lux looked at him in awe. She would really like to learn more about the magic behind those mirrors he described. Maybe she could get him to show her sometime. Though probably it would be better not to ask him for secrets like this already. Mages could be very protective of their spells, herself included. So instead she asked "What do you mean, a bit of haggling?"

"Ah, certainly you have been here long enough to notice that the administration likes to have as much control as possible over this institution. Allowing a form of communication that they couldn't control or at least shut down if needed, like letters, was not exactly easy to get them to do." He said.

Lux had, indeed, already known that the Institute could be a little… overbearing. "So what did you have to give them in return?"

He looked towards her again for a few moments, which seemed to stretch to nearly a minute. Finally he shook his head, looking away. "Sorry, but that's a secret. I don't want it to be known."

Lux was about to promise that she wouldn't tell, but stopped herself. Why would he believe her? He had good reason not to tell her if he didn't want it to come out. So instead she said, "I understand." However, his refusal to talk about it made her think whatever it was, it was more than he was comfortable confessing. What could it have been that he had given the Institute?

A few more moments of silence, then Lux had the urge to say something else. "I'm sorry for earlier. I'm not usually a gossip." She looked up to him just in time to see him wave her apology away.

"Don't worry. I did after all kind of appear out of nothing, literally." Then he looked to the screen in the room. "Ah, the match is starting." That was the last thing any of them said for a couple of minutes, as they watched the screen.

Annie and her summoner were doing quite well for themselves. After waiting for Varus to get their enemies to 'low life' from a distance, Annie's summoner had flashed her a few metres towards the enemy team and Annie had drawn first blood against Katarina and had even gotten an additional 'kill' against Ashe, who had been caught in the cross fire. 'Kill' in these battle simulations was simulated by a shield surrounding the champion signalling that it had taken too much damage and the champion being taken out of the match for some amount of time fixed in the rules. It was a simulation of battle after all.

Anyway, since first blood the teams had gone back to harassing each other from a distance, as Katarina tried to avoid being caught of guard by Annie again. All champions and summoners seemed content with waiting the champions to unlock more of their strength before trying another fight. At the beginning of a battle, a lot of the powers of a champion were magically blocked, to even out the playing field and start small. With time, and by being close to 'kills' or dying minions, the champions could gain 'experience points' that would finally allow them to increase their level and unlock more of their powers.

Lux made a few sideway glances to her fellow champion, but he seemed transfixed by the match. Seemed being the keyword, as he suddenly started talking when she had just looked towards him again. "If you want to ask something, I can watch and talk at the same time."

At some point, Lux decided, she would stop getting embarrassed by this guy at every possible corner. Really, she had just wanted to find out how he reacted to Annie's performance. Now she had to come up with some question though, because not to have a question would be even more embarrassing now. As she couldn't come up with anything better, she settled for "So where did you come from?"

He briefly looked to her surprised, as if he hadn't expected that question. Then he looked back towards the screen. "You wouldn't recognise the name."

"Try me." Lux challenged, before she could remember her plan of not being embarrassed again.

"It is called Britain." Ah, Britain. Yep, never heard of that. Way to go Lux, you had to challenge him again, didn't you?

"You are right," she said dejectedly "I never heard of that. Is it in Valoran?"

Her companion chuckled. "Not so much, no." Lux didn't really enjoy being made fun of, but she figured she had kind of asked for it. As she looked up again she was surprised to find him looking at her carefully. Then he did something unexpected: he smiled. It was a nice, warm smile, Lux noted. "Look, don't worry, I think no one here would actually know the name or know where it is."

With that he turned back to the screen to watch the game and Lux found herself staring at the side of his face for a few more moments, surprised by the sudden show of kindness, before she also turned to watch again.

Another ten minutes, and both teams had taken the first tower of their opponents down. The screen signalled that Annie's summoner had the flash spell readied again and this time Annie had unlocked enough of her strength, to call forth her bear Tibbers as well. They were now obviously waiting for the right moment. There it was. Katarina had jumped out of the way of one of Varus' arrows, but that brought her close enough to Ashe to hit both of them with Tibbers. Annie flashed… and all hell broke lose. For the enemy team, that was.

Annie's team got another tower and the inhibitor out of that situation. They were doing really well right now. "She is quite good, isn't she?"

Lux turned around to Harry Potter to look at him, but he never looked away from the screen so she simply answered "Yes, she is."

Both watched the screen for a while longer. Nautilus got of a good engage on Varus, but other than taking him out of the game for half a minute, nothing much came of it for his team, due to Lulu's quick shielding and saving of Irelia. After that both teams went back to their previous wait and see game.

Lux thought it was a good time to talk a bit more. The guy was not as talkative as she usually liked her conversation partners, but he wasn't refusing conversation either. And if she found something he would actually talk about, Lux was sure he would have a few interesting stories to tell.

"So, can you tell me more about this Britain? Where is it?"

"It's an island that belongs to a continent called Europe."

Lux scrunched up her face. Sure, she was not very learned in topography of Runeterra beyond Valoran, but she was fairly sure that she would have heard of a continent called Europe. Finally she gave up and asked "Where does that lie?"

He turned around to her, a smile on his face. "On a planet called Earth."

Lux' eyes grew wide. "You come from another planet?"

He chuckled. "Another dimension actually, I think. But I don't know anything about the theory of different dimensions, so it could just be another planet."

Well, it wasn't the first time a being from a different dimension would come to Runeterra. Though usually most of them weren't… well, human to start with. Now Lux definitely wanted to know more. "So how did you come here, if you don't know anything about dimension travel?"

He seemed to think for a while, before he answered. "I was sent."

"Why?"

Again, he thought for a moment. "Fate."

Lux blinked a few times. "I don't understand." In her head, she added 'and really, what kind of answer was that?'

He turned back to the screen. "Yes, well, that makes two of us."

Lux waited for a few seconds, expecting some more to follow that, but when she understood that he would add nothing more, she asked instead. "So what do you want to do here?"

As he turned back to her, Lux flinched involuntarily, as he was back to his hard, eerily glowing eyes and his expressionless face. "Listen, it was nice talking to you, but I am here to watch the game. I already told you more than I should have. Sorry." With that he turned back to the screen and Lux understood that their conversation was over.

During the next five minutes, Annie's team managed to close of the game with the help of a few well placed arrows by Varus and another flash into Tibbers combo from Annie, leaving Irelia and Nunu to chase down the remaining enemies and clean up the fight. As the victory was pronounced, Lux' companion stood up, and went to leave the room. Lux thought she should try and do something to, well, make their parting less awkward. So she settled for "Hey, how about you join us for dinner later?"

He stopped and turned back around to her. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to get to know someone who wears a mask all the time. In my experience they are much more likely to stab you in the back than those who don't. Good day, Lady Lux."

With that he left, and all Lux could do was stare at the door as it fell shut, wondering whether she should be annoyed at his dismissal, relieved that she was spared another awkward conversation like that or worried about what exactly his parting words could mean.

* * *

 _I hope you enjoyed :) Just a few words on where I am continuing with this. This is probably going into the Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Romance direction. I gave Harry skills and such like the League Champions have, which is where the Phoenix tears and Basilisk poison come into play, as per the Challenge Rules. This happens in my current Chapter 3, where the first actual match is described. Together with some of his usual magic, i.e. stupefy and protego, he is going to be mostly a supporty champion, so as to not make him overly heroic, also as per the challenge rules._


	2. A Chance Encounter - AU Harry Potter

_This one is an attempt to answer DZ2's Emerald Arrow challenge, to be found in his challenge Forum. This is only Harry Potter_ _ _(no crossover)_ , though AU. I don't own Harry Potter. I hope you will enjoy it.  
_

 **A Chance Encounter - AU Harry Potter  
**

An eight year old boy looked down the dark ally with horror in his eyes. Pressed against a wall down at the other side of it, stood a woman, the most beautiful woman the boy had ever seen. Across from them stood a man with what looked to be a very elaborate sword. The woman wore quite a few pieces of jewellery and the boy idly wondered why she would come here by night with that many valuables.

What shocked the boy the most, was the man that lay on the ground directly in front of him, clearly dead. A bloody sword was lying a few feet away from the dead body. Weirdly, beside him lay a bow and he had arrows sticking out of a quiver on his back. And from what the boy could see, they were not sporting utensils. He knew, because he had had quite a bit of experience with what a sporting bow looked like. But who brought a bow and arrow as weapons theses days? Or swords, for that matter, but the boy mused that swords were at least a little more understandable; knives were still used in street fights after all.

Now, a usual eight year old boy's instincts would have told him to run away. A usual eight year old boy would have listened to those instincts. But Harry Potter was not a usual eight year old boy. He was weird. Everyone knew that. His family called him weird or even a freak at least thrice a day. Harry didn't really mind that much. After all, he was indeed weird, so he didn't really see the harm in saying so.

What most people didn't know was that Harry Potter also had a - some would say irrational - drive to save people. Well, usually not from deadly situations, because Harry Potter was not so unusual that he would have been in many of them during his eight year old life. None, at least as far as he knew. No, but he saved quite a few other children from beatings. Usually, by just being beaten up himself and holding out long enough so that the intended victim could run away. The assailants were usually Harry's cousin Dudley and his friends.

Sadly, even though he saved five different children by now, two of them more than once, Harry didn't have any friends himself. While he didn't think that he was disliked as such, his cousin tended to threaten anyone who tried so much as to talk to Harry. Those who remained determined anyway would change their opinion when the others told them how weird Harry was. Harry didn't quite understand why being weird would change their opinion, but it did anyway.

Well, it wasn't quite true that Harry had no friends. He didn't have friends his age. There was of course the PE teacher, Mr Petersen. He was the one who got the Dursleys to pay for Harry's archery classes and oftentimes he was driving him to the tournaments himself and he possibly could be called a friend, though he was more of a role model. You see, Harry was always crazy about archery, ever since he had seen a children's picture book about Robin Hood. When he had found out that there was an archery club in town that had lessons for children starting at four (obviously with light weight bows and soft foam arrows that wouldn't fly far or hurt anyone) he had begged his family to let him join, but they had said it was too expensive for him to go.

Incidentally, many things in Harry's life were too expensive for him to do. While the fridge always seemed to be full of eggs, it was too expensive for Harry to participate in eating them. He usually had bread with something light to put on or cornflakes for breakfast. It was too expensive for him to have new clothes, so usually he used Dudley's old ones. It was too expensive to have new school books. Harry guessed that building drilling machines wasn't a very lucrative business for his uncle and if Harry had the choice he would give things to Dudley as well. Dudley would start screaming and crying whenever he didn't get something, and Harry could understand the urge to prevent that. Harry had tried that himself a few times, but his uncle hadn't been quite as receptive, and so Harry had sopped trying that tactic again. Still, he had been very sad when he was forbidden to join the archery club.

Luckily, the library had been free of charge and that was not too expensive, even for Harry. So his Aunt had agreed to fill in the forms, as long as Harry promised to take good care of the books, which he promised immediately. And that way, Harry had become a member of the local library, rather than of the archery club. At first, he had only been able to read children's books with lots of pictures, because his reading hadn't been that good. But one of the librarians, a Mrs Underwood, seemed to have a bit of time on her hands. Anyway, when she saw Harry standing around the non-picture book section one day, she asked whether he could already read. When Harry answered negative, she took it upon herself to teach him. "A child should have read at least one book before going to school." she had said.

Harry had, of course, chosen a book with Archery in it. Mrs Underwood had found that choice a little weird, because it was a book on archery as a sport, rather than a storybook, but Harry couldn't be swayed from it and he assumed she guessed that it couldn't do any harm. So he read his first book on archery. Later, when he was able to read better, he found out that the library held quite a few books on archery, both the about the sport and story books. It was because the archery club in town had made a sizeable contribution, Harry had been told, though he hadn't quite understood what that meant at the time. He hadn't cared that much, everything that mattered to him was that there were books and books on archery. He didn't understand everything in them, but sometimes they had nice pictures explaining the movements, that Harry could even imitate without the equipment. They also explained what kind of training one needed to undertake to be able to wield a bow properly. Some of things, like running in the morning to increase stamina and overall condition, or holding out ones arm straight while holding some kind of heavy object in ones hand, could be done without special equipment, so Harry tried to follow those instructions as good as he could.

When he went to school, he had already read a few of the books and had a training routine he quite enjoyed. He quickly found out, to his disappointment, that none of the other children was interested in archery. Nonetheless, in one of their first PE lessons, Mr Petersen had told them that he would take them to the archery club later in the school year. Harry had looked forward to that for months. When they finally got to go, Harry had been so nervous and happy at the same time, that he thought he might burst. After a few failed attempts due to never holding an actual bow in his hand, he became quite steady. A bit longer, and he actually became good. So good, indeed, that Mr Petersen had asked him whether he was a club member.

Harry answered negative, stating truthfully that it was too expensive. Mr Petersen had frowned, but nodded and had left Harry to his shooting exercises. A few days later, Mr Petersen had visited the Dursleys at home, inquiring about Harry. Harry also showed him the books from the library he had at home at that time. Mr Petersen frowned a lot during his visit. Later he came back and asked Harry if he wanted to live with Mr Petersen's parents, who would be willing to take Harry in. Harry didn't really know what to say to that, and in the end it didn't matter. Aunt Petunia wouldn't allow it. In fact she seemed quite scared to lose him, but Harry couldn't fathom why that was. Though he guessed they were family after all. He got his own room out of that, so it was still a good thing. The Dursleys even bought him some clothing of his own and put up a new bed and a new desk in what was now Harry's room. They bought him a few books of his own and his own shelf to put them on. Of course, all of them had archery in them, because that was the one thing the Dursleys knew he liked. Most importantly, the Dursleys filled in the forms allowing him to join the archery club and take lessons and agreed to pay for everything.

The teachers in the club quickly found that Harry was too advanced for the class of his age group; most of them were beginners, while Harry had the theoretical knowledge and through his training already was in a better body condition for archery. So instead of joining the usual classes, he joined an advanced class mostly for older students, though he still used the children's equipment. Harry's love for everything about archery only increased, now that he was finally able to practice it first hand. Even in the advanced class he quickly picked up the techniques they were taught even though he had a strength disadvantage due to his age and much smaller stature. He had since won two tournaments in his age class and placed second or third in three more. This year he also participated in an age class above his own and placed fifth.

Back to the situation at hand, Harry Potter was not a usual boy and so instead of running away he picked up the bow that the laid beside the dead man. He noticed that it was too heavy for him but thought that one or two shots should be fine. He just needed enough for the woman to be able to get away. He carefully creped a bit further into the ally to get to the quiver. Luckily neither the woman nor the man, who was currently busy taunting the woman while raising his sword, had noticed him yet. Harry didn't really notice what was said, he was too focused on trying to help. When he took out two arrows, his eyes went wide when he noticed intricate patterns and the extremely sharp looking edge of the arrowhead.

But he didn't have time to ponder any of this as the man was now slowly approaching the woman, his sword raised. Harry thanked whoever did city planning that the only light in the ally was at the end where the two others stood. That meant he wasn't easily seen and they were very well illuminated. Harry knew he couldn't aim at the hand, the chance to hit the woman was too big if the man moved his arms. If he aimed at the torso or head this monster of an arrow might actually kill the man, so Harry wasn't quite keen to try that. So he opted to aim at the knee. It would make the man fall down, he hoped, or at least distract him enough for the woman to get around him and then slow him down enough for her and Harry to get away.

As he spanned the bow, Harry noticed the eyes of the woman falling on him and going wide for a moment. She had seen him now. Hopefully she didn't give it away to the man. The bow was hard to span, but Harry somehow managed to get enough force on it to hit where he aimed. At least Harry hoped so.

When Harry released the arrow everything seemed to slow down. The man was now in striking distance and seemed to try and wound the woman on one of her arms, probably to make some kind of point. As he raised his sword into the air, the arrow got ever closer to its aim. Ever, ever closer. Harry already spanned the bow with the second arrow in case something went wrong, but he knew it wouldn't. He would hit. Just as the man began a strike movement, the arrow connected.

There was a sickening sound and then a scream and a thump, as the man fell down to the floor, dropping the sword in the process. The sickening sound, as Harry noticed with alarm and horror was due to the arrow going completely through the leg and now sticking out at the other side. The woman used the chance to dart around the man and then run towards where Harry stood.

Harry meanwhile lowered the bow and slowly relaxed the string, without releasing the arrow, dropping both to the floor in the end. The woman had made it to Harry and crouched down between Harry and her dead companion. She looked into Harry's eyes, she had eyes of a deep blue and golden hair. "You saved me, boy, come take my hand, I'll take you to where we can talk."

Harry didn't think she would be any danger, so he took her hand, but she was surprised as the woman instead of moving closed her eyes, putting her other hand on the shoulder of the dead man. After a few seconds, Harry felt awkward. "Ummm… Madam… we should really leave here."

"Just a moment, I promise." The woman whispered, as if to not disturb her own concentration.

Ten seconds… twenty seconds…. The wailing of the man on the ground started to become quite tormenting to Harry, so instead he studied the woman. She had an elegant face and what Harry thought to be very fine clothing. He did understand why a robber would choose her as a victim. Wait, what was that in her hair? Harry wondered, when he saw something pointing out of her hair at one side of her head. Then he saw the same on the other side.

Harry just realised that the woman had pointed ears, when the world suddenly became black with millions of little lights shining around them like stars in the night. Harry felt like he was floating for a moment, before the world shifted back to vision. Only… they were not in any place that Harry knew.

They were inside what looked to be a forest clearing. As Harry got more aware of his surroundings, he noticed a lot of people seemed to be busy around him, but seemed to stop in their tracks as soon as they noticed them. Now that Harry knew what to look for he immediately noticed that all of them had pointed ears, just like the woman that was now slowly releasing her grip on him. Harry also noticed that most of them seemed to be armoured, though they didn't seem to carry weaponry. Suddenly, he heard the voice of a girl. "Mommy!"

Then he heard a gasp and another voice, very similar to the first one shouted "Mum!" As he looked over the shoulder of the woman in front of him he saw two girls who looked to be his age run towards them. The two looked very similar, to each other and Harry assumed they could be twins.

The woman smiled at him and pressed his shoulder encouragingly. "I promise you are safe here." She said, before turning away and around, towards the two girls who were still sprinting towards them.

She caught both of them in her arms and they buried their heads in the woman's shoulders. "You made it, mum." Said the girl who wore a kind of dress in silver and green colours. Her sister simply buried deeper into her mothers side. She wore trousers and a kind of jumper.

Harry felt slightly uncomfortable standing so close to an obvious family reunion, so he took a few steps back and looked around. The clearing they were in was beautiful. Everything seemed to be in full bloom and Harry for some reason he couldn't understand felt warm and save. It was like there was an energy flowing through him, connecting him to the earth, the trees and the flowers all around. People mostly had smiles on their faces, watching the woman and her two daughters. A man with the same mahogany hair as the two girls stepped closer to the group of three. Harry noticed that the man eyed him carefully for a few moments, before returning his attention to the three still hugging. Harry noticed that he still had the bow and arrow in his hand. He carefully laid both down on the ground, feeling that holding them might send a wrong message. He flinched when he heard a male voice.

"Arya, I feared I had lost you." The relief in those words made Harry looked up. The man who had stepped up to the group had a smile on his face and crouched down to take up the girl with the dress into his arms. The woman stood up as well, carrying the other girl. The two kissed for a few moments, while Harry looked around uncomfortably, feeling more and more like an intruder in this whole scene. Harry tried to think what was going on. Pointed ears, Harry had of course heard some myths of people like this. Elves, they were sometimes called. But those were myths, right? He saw that more and more people seemed to direct their attention towards him and he briefly thought about trying to run away, but he wouldn't really know where to go, not to mention that people were nearly everywhere around him.

As Harry's discomfort became nearly unbearable, he looked at the group in front of him again. He noticed that the two girls had been put back down on the floor, and looked at him with interest in their eyes, while their two parents were still hugging each other. The man's eyes fell on Harry again, but before he could say anything, another man stepped forward from the crowed towards the reunited family.

"My Queen, what is to happen to the human you brought with you?" Harry didn't like the voice or for that matter the choice of words, and involuntarily took a few steps back. The woman (was she really some Queen?) startled, and turned around to Harry, momentarily a guilty look on her face. She went a few steps towards Harry who now looked back to her wearily.

"Sorry, I hope we can soon explain everything to you. But before that can happen, I have to take care of a few things. You have to wait a bit, alright?" She had used a quiet voice and Harry nodded, feeling a bit more comfortable. She nodded back to him with a smile, and then asked. "Can you tell me your name?"

Harry looked to her for a few moments, before answering "Harry Potter."

The woman nodded. "I'm Arya. Trust me, Harry, you will be fine, I promise." Then she turned around towards the majority of the crowd and the man that had asked after him.

"This is Harry Potter; he will remain here for a little while. He is to be treated as if he was from my own family. He saved my life not ten minutes ago."

There were gasps in the crowd and Harry could see people start to turn around and whisper to each other. The man that Harry assumed was Arya's husband seemed surprised at her proclamation, but the two girls just looked at him with wide eyes. Suddenly, both of them quickly ran the few steps towards him and threw their arms around him much like they had done with their mother before. Unsurprisingly, however, Harry was not nearly as secure footed as their mother, and shortly after both impacted into him, Harry found himself with his back on the forest ground, buried under the two girls that had fell on top of him.

He took a few more moments to overcome his shock, not having a lot of experience with this kind of interaction. Then he raised both his hands and awkwardly patted both girls on the back. He could hear their mother chuckle and the girl in the dress released him and stood up, looking slightly embarrassed.

Harry looked to the other girl expectantly, but noticed with some confusion that she did not seem to have any intention of mimicking her sister. Instead, she used the absence of her sister to tighten her grip around Harry. It wasn't until her mother said "Diana, let the poor boy up from the ground at least" that the girl, Diana, startled and quickly jumped up, seeming much less graceful than her sister. She held out a hand, and Harry, after only a moment of hesitance, grabbed and got up with her help. She grinned at him. "I'm Diana." She said simply.

Their mother stepped towards them and crouched once more, causing her other daughter to step closer again as well. "Listen, I have to take care of things here before I can deal with everything here. Can you girls show Harry around and explain where he is and what is happening?"

Both girls nodded. "Alright." The woman smiled. "Harry, will it be a problem to stay here for an hour or two?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I was told to not come home before in three hours anyway, M- Mam." He answered, not sure how to address her. "If I take longer than that they might not let me in though." He said as an after thought.

The woman frowned briefly, before she carefully looked Harry up and down. "Well, I promise it won't be more than an hour and a half before I come looking for the three of you, ok?"

All three children nodded. "Ok. Well, Diana already introduced herself. So let me introduce you to her older sister. This is Artemis." The woman continued, putting a hand on the back of the girl in the dress.

The girl nodded to him with a friendly smile, which he returned. "Good, now when you are done showing Harry around a bit, I want you to wait in your room with him, ok?" The woman said more towards the two girls than to Harry.

Both nodded and the woman nodded back in return. "Good, then run along now." She stepped back from the three children, towards her husband.

Artemis stepped up. "Will you follow us, Lord Harry?"

Harry scratched his head, embarrassed at the form of address used. "Um… alright." He finally brought out lamely. No sooner had he said that, as he felt a hand grab his arm from his other side accompanied by a "Come on, then!", and he was pulled after Diana. He looked around and saw Artemis quickly follow them with a slight smile on her face. The crowd parted, and the trio stepped deeper into the forest. Only, there was no forest.

Instead, he found himself standing in another, even larger forest clearing. As he looked back confusedly, He saw dense forest behind him. Artemis smiled. "This is the sanctuary of our family. Only those of Astari blood or those they touch can ever enter it, as long as there is still an Astari on this earth." She said with a proud voice. Harry looked towards the front again, as Diana let go of his arm. The clearing was huge. A stream went right through its middle, with several bridges crossing it. From where Harry stood, a number of paths led to the different bridges, with flowers, bushes and trees along the way, some of which Harry had never seen before. The paths continued on the other side of the river, all eventually leading to the opposite end of the clearing, on which Harry could see a large house. Though 'house' was a bad description for it, Harry mused. It didn't so much look like a building. Much more it seemed like it had grown here naturally, like the trees and flowers, to house whoever lived in this clearing as if it was the will of nature herself. It looked too beautiful for Harry to put in words.

Both Artemis and Diana stood in front of him now, smiling. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Lord Harry." Artemis started. "Maybe it would be best if we try to answer some of them before we show you around?"

Harry managed only to nod numbly.

"Alright, maybe this is unsurprising, but we" she pointed to her sister and herself "are not human. We are Elves." Harry's eyes grew wide, and Artemis smiled. "I know there are some myths about us in the human world, maybe you have heard them." Harry again nodded slowly.

"Well, I'm not sure as to their truth and accuracy, but what they get right is that we exist." Artemis continued her explanation, while Diana nodded beside her.

"Then why does nobody know of you?" Harry asked confusedly.

"We have lived separated from the human world for a long time. I'm not sure how the story goes exactly, but there had been a big war between humans and elves. The war ended in a tie, but it had wiped out many Elvin villages and towns. So the King of Stars at that time decided to leave the human world behind. The Elves found a new home and erected strong magical protections, so they could live amongst themselves and in peace. A few other races went with them."

Harry nodded to signal that he understood. Then another question came to him. "How come that you speak our language?" he asked. He was quite sure that English in its current form was not so old that it already existed in the time that Artemis described.

"Our mother thinks we should learn more about the human world. She knew they had advanced a great deal and she makes regular expeditions to find out about them. She thinks this is very important. So she made us learn their language from when we were little. Well, we know there are many of them. We learned the one from a country called England, because that was where the Court of Stars had its seat back when Elves and Humans still lived together."

"Court of Stars?" Harry asked once more with a confused voice.

"Our government." Artemis gave back. "Before the war it used to be a combined government of Humans, Elves and other races. Though now of course it has its main seat in Feyhaven, the biggest city in these lands. Our mother is the current Queen of Stars, the Queen in that court."

"So your mother is really a Queen?" Harry asked. Both of them nodded proudly. "Wait. Then you are princesses?"

They smiled and chuckled. "Yes, Harry." Diana answered. "Artemis is older than me, so she is the Crown Princess." Artemis blushed a little.

Harry blushed as well. "Umm… Sorry, should I have called you Princess of something?" he asked insecurely.

Diana waved it away. "Don't even think about it. I hate it when people do that."

Harry looked to Diana insecurely, and then to Artemis. "No you are fine. Diana introduced herself with her first name and without title, so that gave you leave to simply call her Diana. My mother introduced me simply as 'Artemis', as she is the Queen it gives you leave to call me exactly that." As Harry opened his mouth to say something, Artemis shook her head. "I don't mind, really."

Harry nodded. There was silence for a few seconds, before Artemis asked. "So, Lord Harry, what else do you want to know?"

"Why do you keep calling me Lord Harry? I'm not a Lord?"

"You haven't allowed me to call you anything else." Artemis simply answered.

"But Diana doesn't call me Lord Harry either?" Harry argued.

Artemis frowned at her sister. "That's because she is about as well mannered as a trickster sprite." Diana simply stuck out her tongue towards her sister.

"Anyway, can you call me Harry?"

Artemis nodded with a smile. Then she looked a little troubled before she asked. "I know we were to answer your questions and show you around. But can I ask something?" She mostly looked down to the ground, but luckily she still could see Harry nod. "Did you really save our mother?"

Harry scratched his head while blushing. He found the declaration that he had saved the woman's life very uncomfortable, even more so now that he heard she was some kind of Queen. "Well…" He started. "I… well… I was going through town, because my Uncle had kicked me out of the house. I came across this dark alley and when I looked down, I saw a dead person lying there and a man threatening your mother with a sword while she was cornered." Both girls placed their hands in front of their mouths. "I saw that the dead person had a bow lying beside him and I had some experience with a bow. So I snuck up to where it was and took it. I shot the man in the knee. Your mother managed to use it to get around him and ran to me. It took her a while, but she somehow brought us to the first forest clearing. And that's that. So I didn't really do much…" He couldn't continue on, as once more Diana had tightly wrapped her arms around him. After a few moments, she let go and wiped her eyes. "Thank you so much." She said, her eyes conveying deep emotion. Artemis nodded in agreement.

After a little silence, Diana asked in an upbeat and exited voice. "So should we go inside and talk some more? I really want to know how you learned to shoot. Mother said that Humans don't much use our kind of weapons anymore these days."

* * *

Harry didn't really know what to make of his current situation. For nearly two hours he had talked to the two 'Princesses'. After he had told them about how he learned to use bow and arrow, a story Diana had been especially keen to hear, they had gone back an forth an asking and answering questions about their respective worlds.

Of course, Harry wouldn't have believed half of what the two told him just three hours ago. But after he had used a medieval bow and arrow to shoot a man threatening a woman with an equally medieval sword and after said woman then magically ported them to a forest clearing filled with people in more or less medieval armour and after the two daughters of that woman had brought him to a magically hidden house that had suddenly appeared in front of him, it seemed kind of idiotic to doubt their stories about Elves and Goblins and Kobolds and Magic.

That had been another interesting point in their conversation. It seemed there was a community of magical Humans, who had separated themselves from the Humans that couldn't do magic, although both didn't know what led to the separation. Both seemed more than confused when Harry never heard about that. As Harry asked them, they revealed that they thought they could feel magic inside him, so he should be able to use it and therefore be part of that magical community. But when Artemis asked if he ever did something that he couldn't explain, he could indeed remember a few weird occurrences in his past. They decided to wait for Queen Arya to come back, as the girls told him that their mother would be better able to feel for the magic inside of him.

Harry learned that most elves had at least a little bit of control over magic, but that from the old stories it is clear that Human magic was a much stronger form of magic than what the Elves usually used.

Other topics included Harry's life, though the girls seemed to start disliking Dudley and his parents very fast. Harry meanwhile didn't really want to talk about them anyway, so he quickly changed topics when he noticed they had never heard of a cinema. He talked about what Human technology he knew for nearly twenty minutes. It was kind of difficult at first to explain electricity and a telephone, but his two listeners seemed awed enough by what Harry managed to explain.

When questions were exhausted for the time being, they instead started playing together. Diana insisted on taking him out to the back of the house, where there was, amongst other things, a small shooting range. She gave him a bow that was of more appropriate weight, forced one more onto her sister and took one for herself. They made a small competition out of it, though Artemis continued to protest. In the end, Diana had beaten Harry by a very small margin, while Artemis had come in third, much to the amusement of her sister. She seemed however to appreciate Harry's attempts to get her to lighten up.

In the end, without Harry noticing, it had become the best time he had ever had amongst people his age. He found himself somewhat sad that he would have to leave soon. If he wasn't Human and if these two weren't princesses, they might have actually become friends. The two girls seemed to notice Harry getting a bit more subdued, and so asked him what was wrong. At first, Harry was reluctant to say, but Diana wouldn't let it go, so finally Harry asked without looking at them. "Do you think I will ever be allowed to come back here? I mean to meet you again?"

"Of course!" Diana said immediately and Harry looked at her with surprise.

"Look at me Harry." Artemis said much more seriously and Harry turned to her. "You won't have a choice but to come back." She said. "You are a Knight of the Astari Family now."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, and noticed that Diana seemed confused as well.

"It's an ancient law of the court. Even from before the war I told you about. Anyone who saves the life of a King or Queen of Stars is automatically a Knight of the Court." She looked at him pointedly. "That's why I called you Lord Harry before."

Harry looked at her disbelievingly. "You mean to tell me that I am an actual knight?"

"Well, the position is a reward, so you won't have any actual duties unless you want them, I think. But you will still have to learn what all this means and most importantly for your question, no one will be able to deny you to come to our lands to visit whenever you want." Artemis smiled at him.

Diana seemed about as surprised as Harry was. "Artemis, does that mean he can learn shooting together with me?"

Artemis snorted, which Harry already knew after a short time was very out of character for the usually very dignified Crown Princess. "Of course that would be the first thing you ask." Her sister looked at her pleadingly though, and Artemis got weak. "Well, as a knight he would be a full member our people, so technically he could get that kind of education from us, if he so wished. At least I think that's what our Aunt taught us. You could have listened yourself."

Diana waved that last comment away and turned to Harry instead. "Harry, if I get my mother to agree will you come learn shooting together with me?" She asked excitedly.

Harry scratched his head and looked down, before nodding his head, feeling happy that at least one of his two new… acquaintances... wanted to seem him again as well. "I would like that." He answered.

"Alright now, Harry?" Artemis asked, and Harry was surprised at the worry in her voice.

"Yes, thanks. I… well I told you I never really got along with people my age before." Artemis nodded understanding and Harry decided that he didn't need to say anything more about it.

* * *

Harry, Artemis and Diana went on to have a lot of fun. They even compared the few stories Harry knew in which Elves played a role to actual Elves. Diana and Artemis found the stories especially funny, though they found a bit of a true core in most of them. They, well, more Artemis than Diana, also taught Harry some actual Elvin history.

They had gotten a message delivered saying that the Queen would take a little longer than she had first thought. In the end, it had been nearly three hours before the Queen could come back to them.

"I'm sorry, children." She said when she finally came back. "A lot of people had to be calmed down and investigations had to be started. Harry, you saved me tonight from an attempted assassination. I thank you with all my heart." Harry's eyes went wide as he tried to understand what had been said.

"You mean someone tried to kill you?"

"Yes, me and my family. That's why they and our most faithful servants had fled to the forest clearing where I first brought you. It's part of the ancestral lands of our family."

Harry just nodded, unsure what to say. They had tried to kill Artemis and Diana as well. The thought made him angry.

"I know you have to be home soon, so I don't have as much time to explain as I wanted to. I hope my daughters have explained a bit of everything to you?"

Harry nodded.

"Good, now, I would like to know a bit more about you, Harry. I'm sure you told my daughters a little about you, but I don't want to have to ask them and we don't have enough time for that kind of conversation. If you allow me, I would like to see a few of your memories, my magic makes me able to do that if you allow it. I won't see anything you don't want me to see, Harry. Would you let me, please?"

Harry was unsure about that request. He didn't want to deny her, but there were things he didn't want her to know about. He looked back to Artemis and Diana, searching for help. Artemis nodded encouragingly, while Diana stepped closer to him and whispered in his ear "You can trust our mother, Harry, I promise." Harry smiled, turned back to the Queen and nodded his consent.

She put her hands on his cheek and Harry felt dizzy for a second. Or was it longer? The Queen rose from in front of him. "Thank you for that, Harry. Tomorrow is the day you call Saturday, and therefore a weekend. I want to get you back here, so we can talk some more. Would that be alright?"

Harry looked at her carefully. "I don't know if my family will allow it." He said carefully.

"I will talk to them." The Queen answered.

"No, no let me." Harry tried. "They won't like that you are… you know."

"An Elf?" Harry nodded, feeling ashamed.

"It's alright, Harry. You don't need to be ashamed because of your family. I'll talk to them and promise they will agree. Will you be available tomorrow afternoon?"

Harry looked back to the two princesses then again to the Queen. "Will I be able to meet with Artemis and Diana as well?" He asked.

The Queen chuckled. "Judging by the way the two look at me right now I don't think 'no' would be an option anyway. But don't worry, I had planned to come back here and the place is really not big enough for you not to meet them."

"Then I'll come back tomorrow." Harry finally agreed happily.

The Queen smiled. "Good, thank you." She held out her hand. "Take my hand and we go back to where you live. I saw it in your memories, so we can go closer than we were when we left there."

Harry nodded and turned around to the two girls. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." He said shyly and held out his hand.

"Yes, see you tomorrow." Artemis agreed with a smile and took his hand.

Diana frowned at his hand and instead hugged Harry. As she stepped back, she asked "Can you bring your bow tomorrow? I want to see what those Human sport bows you told me about look like."

Harry smiled and nodded consent as both girls stepped back a little.

Ten seconds later, he felt like he was floating again, before he touched back on the ground, in an alley he recognised to be not too far away from Privet Drive.

* * *

 _I hope you liked it, though in the time line it is a bit early to answer to all the challenge rules in the first chapter. But I have plans for all of them and Harry will get his magical bow. Harry will also become a Knight and Lord of the Elvin world. I know many people dislike these things, but as it is due to his own action and not some Potter inheritance, and as it won't help him in the magical world, I thought it would be ok. There will be a few chapters (some already written) on Harry's first days in the Elvin world and then it will be a bit faster until his first year in Hogwarts. Currently Harry is eight, so he (and I) have not thought about girls yet :-p The Elves will have their own society and tradtions. It will probably be a challenge not to have them be to Mary-Sue-y, but I hope I can prevent that._


	3. The Champion of the Institute - HP LoL

_Hi :) Here another HP-LoL crossover one. An answer attempt for DZ2's Abandoned Harry challenge in the DZ2 forum. I think I should meet all the rules, even though I did try to tone down a bit of the bashing that usually happens in these kind of fics.  
_

 **The Champion of the Institute - Harry Potter / League of Legends Crossover  
**

As Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, stared at the name of the paper in his hands, he knew he was going to have a crappy year. Not that the last few years had been particularly great, but this one, this one was going to be really bad.

As he silently read the name once more, memories flashed before him of a boy with emerald green eyes, looking up to him fearfully. He still wondered what had gone wrong those twelve years ago. Shortly before Christmas, James and Lily had gone out and Albus had volunteered to take care of the two children, Harry and Sophie. Of course, he had done it to prepare a ritual. For the good of the magical world, he had wanted Sophie, the Girl who Lived, to get Harry's magical power. Harry hadn't shown any accidental magic that Albus had known of until that point, and Albus was sure that he would be able to convince his parents that Harry was a squib afterwards.

Sophie, being two years old, had slept through most of it, but Harry had noticed. Those fearful green eyes still haunted Albus to this day. You didn't have to like everything you do, even if it was the right thing. Anyway, it never came to that, because Harry simply… vanished that evening. Albus had never been able to explain what had happened. The boy had been sitting there, one moment, fearful emerald orbs staring at Albus, and the next, in a flash of light, he was gone.

With Sophie being the Girl who Lived, James and Lily had been far from the best parents towards Harry for the one year since the Voldemort incident. Still, needless to say, when they came home to find Harry simply gone, they had not been impressed. It had taken Albus years to repair the relationship and that was without them knowing about the ritual. If Harry came back and told them, he would certainly be a short a Muggle Studies teacher.

And that was nothing against what Sirius Black would do to him. Harry's godfather had taken the longest to accept that Harry was gone. Even when half a year after Harry's disappearance Harry's name had been taken out of the Hogwarts Student Register, Sirius had continued to search for the boy for years. In the year where James and Lily had put most of their attention on Sophie, Sirius had been Harry's parent substitute and had become very close to the boy. However, even Sirius regretted not having spent more time with Harry, as the sudden workload of being Lord Black had impacted his free time greatly in that year after Voldemort's death.

Alas, Albus could not refuse to announce the name. As the acting judge for the champion selection, he would lose his magic if he failed to follow the rules. At least James wasn't here, he was on assignment abroad. Albus glanced towards where Sirius and Lily sat next to each other. Believe it or not, Sirius of all people was studying for a Mastery with Professor Flitwick. Granted, it was for a duelling Mastery, but nonetheless, it was a Mastery. Albus had agreed to let Sirius live in the castle if he provided additional oversight for the students. Now he kind of wished he hadn't done that.

"Albus, what does it say?" His Deputy Headmistress asked him.

Albus felt his forehead getting slightly wet. He couldn't delay much longer, but he needed a game plan. Once he announced the name, the Goblet would start summoning the boy from wherever he was. It was a little known secondary part of the Goblet's magic. The problem was Albus didn't know what to expect, so planning was especially hard to do. He glanced at the name and then at Sophie. She looked back fearfully, nearly as if she was expecting her name to be called. Dumbledore had to grant the girl that after the last few years that did not seem too unreasonable an expectation. Well, at least that didn't happen. On the other hand, it might have been easier to handle.

"Albus?" Sirius asked, worriedly, his thoughts maybe not too far from those of his honorary niece.

Albus sighed. This was going to be a crappy year. "Harry Potter…" He said, stumbling over the name, his voice so silent, as Albus noticed that no one would have heard.

"Can you repeat that?" Minerva asked, confusion in her voice at what would make him act like this.

Albus looked to Sirius and Lily. "I'm sorry, the two of you. HARRY POTTER!"

Lily simply put her hand in front of her mouth, her eyes wide in shock, looking as if she wanted to cry, but was too surprised to do so. Sirius dealt with the announcement very differently. He stood up so fast that his chair fell over behind him and drew his wand. "What kind of sick joke…."

He came around the teacher table and stepped past a surprised Albus. "Who of you thought it was a good idea to put the name of… of… who of you did it? Show yourself now!" He asked the students agitated.

Then he swirled around to Albus. "Why would you announce that name? While Lily and Sophie are here?"

"You don't understand…" Albus started but he was interrupted.

"Oh, I understand very well." Sirius answered. "I played a lot of pranks in my life but this is just sick."

"No, Sirius. The Goblet cannot choose someone who is dead." Albus said quickly, not wanting to be interrupted again. He had the desired effect, as Sirius stopped in his tracks.

Both men glanced to Lily, whose eyes had gotten even wider than before. A glance at Sophie showed a less extreme but similar reaction of her. Having been two when Harry vanished, she wouldn't remember much of him, but she had been old enough to remember a friendly face that looked like her mommy and daddy somewhat combined. Not to mention that James and Lily had taken great care to tell Sophie all there was to tell about her brother.

After Harry's presumed death, the two decided not to have any more children. His vanishing had opened their eyes to their treatment of him in the year before and as Sophie was still the Girl who Lived, they had been afraid to risk a repetition. Albus still regretted his role in that matter. Not so much that Sophie had gotten the attention he was sure she needed, but that James and Lily were still suffering a shadow on their souls for that last year before Harry vanished.

"What do you mean?" Sirius finally asked confusedly.

"Sirius, the Goblet cannot choose a dead person."

"But isn't it always true that it shouldn't be able to choose a fourth champion at all?"

Now that Albus thought of it, that was a reasonable objection. Not to mention the question of how the name got into the goblet in the first place. And how the goblet would know which of the many Harry Potter's in the world this referred to, as he obviously hadn't put it in himself. Though Albus assumed that intent of magic could help with that last problem.

"Albus?" Sirius asked, shaking him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, you are right, I hadn't thought of that. I cannot say what happened, I'm sorry. But someone called Harry Potter has to compete in the tournament. And as he isn't here, the magic of the goblet is preparing to summon him right now, whoever he is."

Sirius himself now seemed too shocked to do anything but stare at the magical artefact and most people in the hall, as Albus noticed, did the same. Slowly the flames swirling around the goblet became more intensive, while the fire inside became higher and larger. This build up went on for a minute and then suddenly, a bright blue and pillar of light flashed up over the goblet for a moment, before a bulk of flames shot out and landed on the floor, taking human shape, while more fire was fed into them from the goblet. It was truly a sight to see, Albus thought, something worth witnessing, if the situation wasn't so serious.

When the human form had been completed, all the flames suddenly vanished, even those lighting the goblet. Albus quickly turned the torches in the hall back to full power so that they may see whoever it was that the goblet had brought here.

He could only see the back of the man. He seemed athletic, with broad shoulders. He wore a sword on his back, not to mention several nasty looking knives were held up by the belt around his simple black Bermudas. He wore a red and blue short sleeved shirt, showing well toned but not overly muscular arms. His hair was wild and Albus would have described it at neither long or short. The hair though was the first indication that this was who Albus thought it would be. It was James Potter's.

"What the…?" The person that still stood with his back to Albus asked in understandable surprise. In a movement so quick that Albus couldn't react at all, the person had his sword in hand and there were gasps around the hall when blue and red flames started circling around it.

"What is going on here?" The person demanded. "What has Noxus planned this time?"

Albus didn't know how to answer the last question, but he thought it best to intervene before the situation could get out of hand. "Excuse me, Mr Potter?" The person tensed, as if they knew Albus' voice. A second indication.

The flames around the sword intensified, as slowly the person turned around. Emerald Eyes, and while the scar was much fainter than it used to be, the lightning bolt scar that Harry had sustained during Voldemort's attack was still there. Gasps were heard behind him, not only from Lily and Sirius, who seemed momentarily frozen in place, but also from Minerva and Filius, who had known Harry before he vanished.

Albus however was more worried about Harry himself at the moment, as his eyes had narrowed dangerously and the flames around his sword had once more intensified.

"Professor Dumbledore…" Harry said in a hissing voice. "… I'm in Hogwarts then?"

Albus nodded.

"How did I get here?" Harry asked, his voice still mostly a hiss.

"That is… well, a long story," Albus started, "maybe you could put away your sword, you are frightening the students." And me, Albus added as an afterthought. "I promise there is no danger for you here."

Harry tensed for a moment and looked around, but then he nodded and the flames on his sword snuffed out, before he put it back into the hilt on his back. Then he looked at Albus expectantly.

Before Albus could launch into the explanation, however, Sirius and Lily finally both seemed to get over their shock. "Harry." Both gasped, taking Harry's attention briefly away from Albus.

To Albus' surprise, Harry's eyes narrowed again. "You are working together with him?" He asked accusingly, looking between his godfather and his mother.

"What?" Sirius asked confusedly, while Lily stood up and came around the table, seemingly not having heard what Harry had just said.

"You are working with him?" Harry asked again.

"Yes, Harry, but why…?" Sirius started, but Harry interrupted him.

"Then stay away from me. Both of you." He fixed a stare on his mother who stopped in her tracks, once more frozen in shock.

Harry turned back to Albus. "How did I get here and how can I get back?"

Albus gulped. This was going even worse that he had feared. "Well, you see… have you ever heard of the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"The one with all the dead competitors? Yeah, I think I heard about that when I was still… here." Harry said, his voice had a cutting edge to it.

"It was decided to hold another instalment. Your name, it came out of the Goblet of fire…" That was where Albus was once more interrupted.

"We have searched along time for you, Harry, years and years. Where have you been?" Sirius asked, obviously he had decided to ignore the less than warm greeting from shortly before.

"Somewhere where I was safe and cared for, more than I could have said of this place at the time." Harry answered, his voice suddenly drawling. If Albus hadn't known better, he would assume Severus had taught him that.

"Harry…" Sirius and Lily started at the same time, but Harry held up a hand.

"No. You work together with him. That is the beginning and the end of what I need to know." He turned back to Albus. "Now, I want to know how I can get back."

Albus gulped again. "Well, you see, that is not so easy. The Goblet of Fire chose you as a champion for the Tri-Wizard tournament."

"So?"

"So you have to compete…" Albus explained.

"Or what?" Harry asked, eyes once more narrowing dangerously.

"Or lose your magic." Albus took a few steps back and put a hand over where he had hidden his wand. Just in case.

But whatever reaction Albus had expected out of Harry, sudden loud and laughter had not even been close to making it on the list. But nonetheless, Harry was holding his stomach and laughing as if Albus had just told a great joke. Somehow, Albus didn't find that too relaxing. In fact, he found it slightly frightening as anything.

Finally, Harry was done laughing and wiped his eyes, before he said. "Is there a way for me to go back now? At least to tell my friends and family I'm alright?"

Albus saw Sirius mouth 'friends and family' but he decided to concern himself with Harry for now. "That depends on where you came from?" he asked.

"Oh, that would be the Institute of War, between Demacia, Noxus, Freljord and Ionia, right in the middle of Valoran on Runeterra. In another dimension."

Albus blinked. And blinked again. That would be a problem. "Ah… well, Harry, maybe after the tournament, we can… try to find a way to get you back… if you still want to then… if that doesn't work, you could certainly…" but Harry interrupted him.

"Yeah, right. I was thinking more, this evening or tomorrow."

Albus gulped. "I… fear not, Harry."

Harry laughed again briefly. Somehow, Albus didn't believe that to mean anything good.

Harry then continued. "This is just too good. Any explanation how my name could get in or how I was chosen when I didn't put it in myself?" He looked to Albus, but did seem to see the answer in his eyes. "Then I would suggest you get on that so that you have one until my friends make it here." He chuckled again. "Oh, Kat is going to love this." He said more to himself as it seemed, rather than to the rest of the room.

"Umm… I don't think your friends will be able to come here, Harry." Albus said.

"Aha. You better get on with that investigation." Harry answered, ignoring Albus words. "I think you might have a day. Ah well, Kat lost a match against Lux yesterday, so she might need to focus. Maybe you are lucky and get two days. Is there a room I could stay in during… well however long this will take?"

"The rest of the year." Albus answered. Harry's eyes widened a little.

"In that case, can it please be big enough to hold some of my friends and family as guests as well? You will end up doing that anyway, might as well do it now to save you some hassle."

Albus knew what he was going to say would not help his situation, but he didn't want Harry to have false hope. "Harry, your friends aren't going to come. I'm sorry, but in all probability, you will have to live here for the rest of your life. But, I'm sure your birth family could…"

That's how far Albus got before Harry fixed him with a stare that made his blood freeze. "Or maybe, I'll just get on with finding you a room of the size you asked for." Albus finally brought out.

Harry smiled. "Thanks. Don't worry, most of my friends aren't very violent, unless you put their friends into danger… oh, wait." Harry looked at Albus with an evil grin. "Hmm… maybe you should worry. If I was you I would pray that Lux makes it here."

Harry looked over the staff table then back to Albus. "I think I'll wait outside for someone to show me to my room." He turned around and strode to the doors of the entrance hall with large steps. In the middle, he suddenly stopped and looked around. Seemingly not able to find what he was looking for, he finally asked with a loud and hopeful sounding voice. "Is Sophie Potter here?"

Albus eyes glanced to the girl who, in true Gryffindor fashion, stood up and shouted, "Yes, I'm here."

However, instead of delight, Albus thought he could see disappointment flash in Harry's eyes, and when he spoke it was evident in his voice. "I see." He turned away from her and continued towards the doors, causing sadness to creep into his younger sister's eyes.

"Harry, wait, you need to talk with the others about the tournament. Know what the first task will be about."

Harry turned around to Albus. "I don't care about that. Someone can tell me later." He said in a careless voice before he turned back and proceeded towards his goal.

When he was nearly at the doors, Sirius found his voice once more. "Harry, please wait. Stop. You have to understand, if you were in another dimension, how were we supposed to find you?"

Harry turned around, his eyes cold his expression dark. "I have learned a lot in the last twelve years. I have friends and a family who truly care about me. Truly care. Trust me when I say, they will be here at the latest by noon in two days. Do you see the difference between you and them?"

With that, Harry turned away and left the hall in a stunned silence.

* * *

The nerve of these people. First they summoned him here away from the world he now lived in, away from his friends and family. His sister would be pissed by the way. Not Sophie, his other sister. Their older brother had vanished without a trace several years ago, and his sister wouldn't take his vanishing very well at all.

Harry really hoped, for the sake of the people here, that they would bring Lux. Harry might be able to contain the ire of either his girlfriend or his sister, but both of them would be too much for him. Not that he truly believed that his best friend would let them leave her behind.

Anyway, the nerve of these people. After they gave him a room he had not left it. For many that would be a clear sign that he didn't want to meet anyone. Not for these people though. There had been a knock on his door every half hour between 9 pm and 1 am yesterday night and between 7 and 11:30 am this morning. Harry had ignored them, but still, they were straining his calm.

And now, the little House Elf that called himself Dobby and seemingly had been chosen to be responsible for Harry's comfort, had told him that he wasn't allowed to have lunch in his room. Begrudgingly, Harry had to admit that might be for the best. If his friends arrived and didn't find him instantaneously, there would be hell to pay for someone.

It wasn't like Harry was still angry at them. Living in a whole other dimension kind of made anger pointless, and so he had let go of it a long time ago. He had even forgiven the Potter's for how he had been treated that last year. They had been young and overwhelmed by his sister's sudden fame. If he had remained, they probably would have come around again. Harry had been slightly incensed at the fact that they seemingly had been ok with what Dumbledore had done. At least he could see no other reason why they would work for him or send Sophie to this school. But that was all. This wasn't his life anymore. He was certain that he would be able to go back after this stupid tournament, just as he was certain that his friends would arrive here way before that.

As he opened the door to the dining hall, everything inside grew silent. However, that didn't hold long. He hadn't made two steps into the hall when the whispers began. Harry rolled his eyes and ignored them. He was relatively famous back home, so was used to things like that. He was after all the unofficial leader of the most prominent faction of neutral Champions in the League of Legends. Harry refused to actually be the leader, but he knew that his friends made it very clear to everyone that he was.

He ignored the glances and whispers of the students, striding up to the adults table. He was adult after all, in two worlds nonetheless. Even more, he was eighteen and therefore a year older than a Hogwarts student. Not to mention that he also expected he was superior to them in terms of ability, though he wouldn't show that unless needed for now.

However, on the last bit of his journey through the hall, he stopped, when he saw something shimmering on the wall to the left of the teacher's table. He grinned. No reason he couldn't at least have a little fun with this.

"Headmaster, how are those investigations going if I may ask?"

"Well, we were going to bring in some experts, but it will take a while. I don't believe anyone here knows enough about the goblet to truly investigate."

"Don't say I didn't warn you though, _Dumbledore_." He stressed the name, and chuckled when he heard a gasp coming from behind him to the left. His eyes caught another little shimmer. He turned back to the headmaster. "Oh, one more thing. I might have slightly overestimated the time my friends need to find me."

The shimmer behind the teacher's table disappeared momentarily, only for Harry to see it again behind the Headmaster, who was still oblivious to it. "What do you mean?"

"I mean they are closer than you think." Harry said, rolling his eye as the shimmer behind the headmaster stepped forward a little. Harry assumed that Lux had made it so he was the only one who could recognise the shimmering. Harry grinned at his girlfriend's antics as he saw the shimmer step a little closer to the headmaster again.

"Hey, Kat, remember, it's not nice to just kill someone without trying another solution first."

There, right behind the headmaster, his girlfriend Katarina faded into vision, rolling her eyes at him. Everyone gasped, especially as she was holding a knife relatively close to the headmaster's throat. Several people drew their wands, but Katarina simply shadow stepped a few times, and ended up next to Harry. She grinned at him dangerously.

"It wasn't nice to ruin my surprise like that, you know?" She said in a mock disappointed tone. Then she looked around. "So that over there is this Albus Dumbledore character that your sister told us about?"

Harry nodded. "Then tell me again why I may not kill him?" Katarina asked seriously.

"It will scare the children." Harry waved his arms towards the rest of the hall and Katarina looked around.

"Most of them are nearly adult." She said.

"Not in this world, they are not." Harry explained patiently.

Katarina looked around a bit more and then she took on a resigned expression. "Alright, I'll see that I kill him when he is alone, if you insist on it."

Harry rolled his eyes and said in a voice dripping of sarcasm. "Yes, thanks, that's all I can ask."

Katarina's expression suddenly became a little worried. "Are you alright, Harry?" She asked, putting the tips of her fingers on his cheek and turning his head so that he looked into her eyes.

"Yeah, I can take care of myself." Harry said seriously. He knew Kat well enough to know that if she was worried like that, it was not a time for jokes.

Her expression turned into a smirk but before she could say anything, another female voice sounded through the hall. "Harry!" He turned around to see the red armour of his older sister fade out of invisibility, as she strode towards him and Kat. There were gasps around the hall and Harry, for once, couldn't fault them. The swords and blades circling around her in a ghostly fashion were disconcerting even to him sometimes.

Around the walls of the hall, more people suddenly faded into existence. It seemed they had decided that if Harry was joking, there was no danger. He could see his best friend Lux, who obviously was responsible for this invisibility spiel. Ezreal, her boyfriend, became visible close to her. On the wall to his right side, Harry could see his other best friend, Ahri. Well, she was not so much his best friend as she was family. Quite literally, in fact, as their magic had bound them as magical familiars two years ago, when Ahri had nearly died in a summoning accident and Harry had supplied her with magic to help her heal.

However, looking at his sister's face, he decided to ignore everything else for a moment. His sister was very hard to anger, but right now…. "Harry!" She said again, running the last few steps towards him before stopping and looking him up and down. "Are you really ok?" She asked suspiciously and Harry nodded. His sister sighed relieved and pulled him into a hug. Then she looked at him seriously. "What happened? I know you would never vanish like that on your own free will, so who is responsible? And how are they holding you here. They could send us here, but they could not summon you back."

Harry gulped. While, other than Kat, his sister would never simply kill a person, she would definitely challenge them for an honour duel. He doubted that anyone in this world would survive an honour duel with his sister. Especially, as it seemed from the swirling of the blades around her that her power was not bound as it would be in a league match.

To his detriment, it seemed that enough time had passed for the other people in the hall to find their speech again. "Harry, might we inquire that you introduce your friends to us?" The Headmaster tried in a jovial tone. Harry had to give it to him, he managed to keep the fear out of his voice. Harry wasn't sure he would be able to do the same. On the other hand, he also knew his sister better than Dumbledore did.

"Headmaster, right now I'm trying to keep you alive so it is not a very good time for you to interrupt."

Then he turned back to his sister and said in a voice only for her and Kat to hear.

"Sis, please listen…"

* * *

Sophie was tense, but somehow she admired her re-emerged brother. He seemed to have made great friends that they managed to find him back here in such a short time. It made her wonder why her family had never found him.

When he had called her name yesterday, Sophie had briefly hoped that he wanted to talk to her. But for some reason, when she had showed herself, he had seemed… disappointed. She didn't understand why. Did her brother blame her for what happened to him? She could kind of see how that might happen, but still found it a little unfair. She had been only two.

She looked towards him, as he spoke quietly woman in the red armour, whose hair was silver even though she didn't look much older than twenty. She was surrounded by swirling blades that seemed to move on their own. Harry had said he had another family and the way the woman had greeted him… was she his new sister? At that thought, even though she didn't know her brother very well, tears threatened to climb into Sophie's eyes.

She looked to the other people. There was the girl with the crimson hair and the scar. She stood close to Harry and seemed to be the mysterious 'Kat' Harry had mentioned yesterday. She had wanted to kill Professor Dumbledore. Or maybe she had just joked? Sophie wasn't quite sure which part of the conversation between her and Harry had been jokes and which part hadn't. From all Sophie could observe, this was either another family member, or a girlfriend, though she would wager the latter.

There was the girl with the golden hair in white clothing. She swirled around something that looked like a large wand made from metal and light seemed to come off her in weird patterns that made Sophie dizzy. Sophie knew enough about physics to assume that she was the one who was responsible for the invisibility trick. A smile graced her face and she seemed friendly enough.

The blond man close beside her also seemed kind of nice on first glance. He was watching his surroundings very carefully which Sophie guessed she couldn't fault him for. He was in a to him unknown dimension after all, if the story was true. He also seemed to take in everything with a certain interest.

The last was the girl with the nine bushy tails that curled around her. Sophie had never seen someone like that, but she guessed there were more weird things. She had noticed that quite a lot of male attention was directed to her, and she wondered whether this woman had some form of Veela allure.

Sophie could taste the tension in the room. After the Quirrel and the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets, not to mention the Dementors last year when Wormtail escaped from Azkaban, Sophie had developed a kind of sixth sense for danger. And this was a dangerous situation. Sophie didn't have any illusions. The five that came for her brother were fighters. Even the blond girl with the smile seemed to have an inner tension while observing the hall. If she spotted something, there was no doubt in Sophie's mind that it would end badly.

Finally, relieving the situation, the silver haired woman talked a little louder.

"Very well this seems to take longer. We'll be outside, expect us back for dinner." She fixed the teacher's table and especially the headmaster with a stare for a few seconds, then she turned around and walked to the doors ahead of Harry.

The other three moved as well, and met with Harry's group in front of the doors. The Fox girl grabbed onto Harry's arm and pressed herself close to him to which both Harry and the crimson haired one named Kat rolled their eyes. They said something that Sophie couldn't hear, but that elicited chuckles amongst the older students sitting closer to the door and the Fox girl pouted a little, before sticking out her tongue towards Harry.

Still she stepped a little closer and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek as he and the rest stepped through the doors. Then she turned around and seemed to chuckle coyly towards the hall, before winking and blowing the whole hall a kiss. As many of the boys, including her friends Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom, and a few of the girls sighed contently, the woman stepped backwards out of the hall, and then turned to run after the rest of her group.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading :) This story is at the moment for some reason the easiest and most fun to write. It will be only fourth year, so it is also a strong candidate for the first of them to be finished. There will obviously be an explanation in form of flash back for why Harry is friends with both Lux and Katarina (already written up). I am not quite sure as to how it will end, but we'll see...  
_


	4. The Unexpected Familiar - Harry Potter

_This one is different from the previous ones, as it was originally meant to be an open ended one shot. However, I came up with more and more ideas and so now I would like to write a bit more for this. Anyway, this is an attempt to answer Anubis of the Highway Thieves' challenge called It followed me home. It can be found in the DZ2 forums (again). It's not a crossover, so purely HP, and not overly AU either I think apart from one enhancement I made. Sorry Anubis, I know the creature I chose i not as dangerous in theory as you asked, but I think with my enhancement it should still fulfil the criteria. I don't own Harry Potter.  
_

 **The Unexpected Familiar - Harry Potter  
**

Harry was finally able to leave the room, together with Ron, Hermione and Neville. He couldn't believe that Dumbledore would choose someone so inept as DADA Professor. Really. What kind of Professor releases a whole cage full of Cornish Pixie and then runs away?

As they walked away from the class room, Hermione still defending her hero Lockhart, Harry felt something move in his breast pocket. What the…?

He put his hand in only to receive a stinging pain in his finger before he felt little arms and legs circling around it. As Harry slowly removed its hand from his pocked, he unsurprisingly found another of those little plagues hugged around his finger. What did surprise him was that it still had its little teeth sunk into Harry's finger and was glowing strangely purple. The other strange thing about it was that instead of being naked like most of its friends back in Lockhart's class room, this one had a black toga like piece of cloth wrapped around itself.

Once he fully removed his hand, the creature removed its teeth and looked up at Harry expectantly. Oddly enough it made no move to escape, instead it calmly remained standing on Harry's hand.

"Guys, sorry I've got to go back, I'll catch up to you."

He had been behind the rest of the group anyway, slowing down as he fiddled around with in his pocket. The others seemed to pay him no mind for the moment and simply gave their agreement before Harry turned around to walk back to the class room, careful not to move too fast, in hopes the Pixie would remain where it was.

"So why were you glowing before?" He asked absent-mindedly.

* That was the bonding. * He heard a female voice in his head.

"What bonding?" Harry asked back, still not really noticing what was happening.

* Ours. I bonded to you as your familiar. * The female voice responded.

"What does that… wait…" Harry's eyes became wide as he looked at the Pixie that still calmly stood on his hands.

* Wait for it… * the voice in his head said with a hint of amusement.

"Did you just talk to me in my head?"

* Yes, sir. * The Pixie nodded in accordance with the voice in his head.

"How… why… you guys can speak?"

* Of course we can speak. Can you imagine how little chaos we could cause if we couldn't communicate with each other? Wizards just don't understand us. * The voice said as if Harry's question was the stupidest question ever asked.

"How can I understand you then?"

The little creature on his hand actually rolled its eyes. * As I tried to tell you before, I bonded to you as a true familiar. So I can communicate with you via thoughts. *

"Ohhhh-kay." Harry said disbelievingly. "Be that as it may, I'll bring you back to your family now, aright?"

* No, of course that is not alright. Do you think I bonded with you just to be brought back into that stupid cage? *

That made Harry felt a bit guilty about the Pixies. "Ok, how about that, I'll bring you back and then I'll convince Professor Lockhart to let you and the others free?"

* No, I won't go back. I'm your familiar now. I'll stay with you. * The Pixie looked at Harry defiantly.

"Look," Harry tried, "I can't really have a Pixie as a pet."

* Familiar. Do I look like a pet animal to you? *

"Sorry, sorry. As a familiar. Pixies are not allowed in the school rules."

* Doesn't matter. * The Pixie continued to look at him defiantly. * I'll stay with you. I won't go back. My family doesn't want me there anyway, and I don't want to go back. * The Pixie stomped its little foot on Harry's hand.

Harry again felt compassion for the Pixie. "Oh… sorry. Why don't they, you know, why don't they want you?" Harry asked, not able to hide his curiosity.

* They think I'm too crazy. * The voice answered calmly.

Harry blinked. "Did you just say that the other Pixies don't want you with them, because they think you are too crazy?"

* Yes. *

"Too crazy for a Pixie?" Harry asked unbelievingly.

The Pixie rolled its eyes once more. * Obviously. Holy fairy dust, my bonded is an idiot. And could you please stop calling me it, I'm clearly a girl. *

"Ummm… ok." Harry tried to gather his thoughts to find what to do. "Ok, I'm really sorry, but I have to bring you back. I cannot have a Pixie around me. Even if I could, I wouldn't even know how to care for you."

* I can perfectly well care for myself, thank you very much. And as I told you before, I won't go back. *

"Can you tell me why the others think you are too crazy? Maybe I can talk them out of it."

The Pixie looked at him and started giggling and rolling around on Harry's hand. * Really, talk them out of it? That's funny from someone who a minute ago didn't even think we could talk. *

"So will you tell me?"

The Pixie looked at him. * Yes. You are after all my bonded. You should know these things. * The Pixie looked up seriously. * I have a wand. *

Harry blinked dumbly a few times. "Come again?"

The Pixie seemed to sigh and then her hand vanished in a pocket inside her toga, to pull out a small piece of wood that looked like a toothpick. * A wand. * The Pixie repeated.

"Okay." Harry said, as he continued to slowly walk towards the classroom in hopes the Pixie wouldn't notice. To distract her, he asked "What is it made of?"

The Pixie seemed happy about the question, the voice in Harry's head took on a proud 'tone'. * The wood is from a Pixie Home Tree, and the core is made of Witches Destroyed Dream Weddings, Tears of House Elves and…* Without warning the Pixie stung the toothpick with the pointy end first through Harry's skin.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

After a second the Pixie took the piece of wood out of Harry and Harry saw a drop of blood running down its length. *… and now it also has blood of my bonded wizard. *

Harry couldn't help it. He started to giggle. He had to agree with the other Pixies, this was just about the craziest thing he ever heard.

* What? * The Pixie asked angrily.

"I'm…" Harry started, but a new wave of giggles came over him as he struggled to calm himself down. "I'm… sorry." He coughed, and finally managed to have enough air to actually talk. "Well, I'm not an expert in Wand crafting, but I'm quite sure this is not how it works."

The Pixies eyes suddenly lowered dangerously and it made a swift movement with the wand in its hand pointing it towards the door Harry was just passing. * BOMBARDA! *

KA-BOOOM. Harry blinked, gulped and then looked to the gaping hole in the wall where only moments ago there had been a door. Then he gulped again.

* And for the last time. I. Am. A. Girl. * While it was in his head, being shouted at via thoughts was not much better than via actual voice. Harry might have found it amusing that the being doing the shouting was about hand tall, but seeing that it had just let a whole door explode, Harry thought it might not be the time for that.

He thought for something clever to say, and finally he came up with "Ok, maybe wand crafting does work that way. Sorry for doubting you."

The Pixie took on a satisfied expression. Then Harry had a thought.

"So that's why you wanted to bond with me? So you could finish your wand?"

* What? No, it worked before. Though both my wand and my magic seem a bit stronger now, I give you that. *

"Then why?" Harry asked.

* Easy. Now that I'm your true, bonded familiar, no one can separate us unless you allow it. So I'll be able to live here and never have to go back to my family or any other Pixie tribe. *

"What makes you think I will allow you to stay here?" Harry asked confusedly. Really, what gave her the idea that he would allow a crazy Pixie with a wand and enough magical power to casually blow up doors to live anywhere near him. Though Harry had indeed stopped carrying the Pixie towards Lockhart's class room and instead now was walking towards where he thought McGonagall's office was. Maybe he should let a competent teacher deal with this particular Pixie.

The Pixie actually knelt down on his hand and folded its – no, her, Harry corrected himself quickly – hands into an imploring gesture. * Oh please, I beg you, Master, I promise, I will strive to be the best behaved and most useful familiar any wizard ever had. Please don't send me away, Master, please. * The voice in his head sounded so begging and pitiful that Harry again felt guilty.

Suddenly the Pixie used her wings to take off from Harry's hand, and Harry half hoped half feared she would try to get away. But instead, she simply flew up his arm and landed on his shoulder and made a move as if to whisper in his ear. * And if that isn't sufficient, I promise if you let them take me away from you, my wand and I a perfectly capable of massacring a whole bunch of wizards and witches before they even understand what is going on. I'm sure you don't want that on your conscience, do you? *

Harry's eyes grew wide as he stopped. Maybe the Pixie was exaggerating, but he still could clearly picture the whole in the wall where the door had been. He gulped. She said she could take care of herself. Would it really be that bad to have her around?

Harry made a decision. "I'll let you stay with me under one condition."

* Tell me. * The Pixie said happily taking off of his shoulder and hovering in front of Harry's eyes, looking straight at him.

"You won't hurt anyone."

Surprisingly to Harry, she shook her head. * No can do, boss. *

"Then I'm afraid I can't let you stay with me." Harry said sternly.

* How about this. I won't hurt anyone unless I have your permission or they are trying to hurt either me or you. And I am still allowed to play harmless pranks on people other than you and your friends. *

Harry thought about it. The hurt part was alright with him, the pranks would be a problem if she got caught and Harry was held responsible.

"You have to clear the pranks first, but I promise to allow anything that is reasonable as long as you don't do too many."

* Alright, deal. * She spit in her little hand and held it out. Harry, at a bit of a loss what to do, decided lick his little finger and held it out towards the Pixie, who looked at him oddly for a moment before grabbing and shaking it.

* * *

Hermione was relieved when she saw Harry enter the great hall. Well, at least until she saw one of those blue nightmares that they had caught not ten minutes ago calmly sitting on his shoulders. She looked Harry in the eyes and he seemed… intimidated? As Harry sat down beside her Hermione turned around to him.

"Harry, what are you doing with that Pixie on your shoulder? You didn't steal one of them form Lockhart, did you?"

Harry looked at her as if she was mad. "What? Why in the name of Merlin would I steal a Pixie? No… she… well, she kind of followed me out of the class room. In fact she hid in my pocket."

A light went on in Hermione's head "That's why you went back?"

Harry simply nodded.

"Okay… why is it still with you then?"

"She." Harry quickly said.

"What?"

"She is a girl."

Hermione looked at him incredulously. "How would you know?"

After a moment, Harry suddenly went beet red and Hermione looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"She…" He stammered. "She says she has all the girly parts."

Hermione's eyes went wide. "Oh. Sorry. Wait. Did you say 'she says'?"

"Yes." Harry answered, the red colour slowly fading from his face.

"Harry, Pixies can't talk."

"They can." Harry insisted.

Hermione became worried and held a hand on Harry's forehead. "You don't seem to have a fever Harry, but maybe we should go to Madam Pomfrey."

"No, wait. She… she… shebondedtomeasmyfamiliar."

Hermione looked to him. "Pardon?"

Harry took a deep breath and then repeated more calmly. "She bonded to me as my familiar. That's why I can understand her."

Hermione blinked a few times. Then she caught herself. "Harry, even if she did truly bond with you, you cannot have a Pixie as your familiar." Harry looked back to her with a resigned expression on his face. "You can't," she repeated, "it's against the school rules."

"Well, you tell that to her, I already tried that line and she wasn't very impressed."

Hermione gaped at Harry a few times, before turning to the Pixie on his shoulder. The Pixie narrowed its eyes dangerously. Was that a purple glow coming out of her eyes?

Hermione coughed and turned back to Harry. "Maybe you should go and talk to McGonagall instead." She said in as dignified a manner as she could manage after just having been intimidated by a creature that maybe had the height of her hand.

* * *

Luckily it was his free afternoon, Harry thought idly, as he raised his hand and rapped the door three times. His new familiar still sat on his shoulder.

"Just a moment." Professor McGonagall's voice sounded somewhat surprised from inside of her office.

Harry waited for maybe twenty seconds, before he heard steps and the door opened up to reveal a surprised looking Head of Gryffindor house. Her eyebrows rose an additional centimetre when her eyes fell onto the little blue being on Harry's shoulder.

Harry took a deep breath and started. "Could I maybe have a moment of your time, Professor?"

The Professor looked back to him for a few moments, and then she nodded. "That might be a good idea." She stepped to the side to let Harry in and walked back to her desk with him, pointing him to the two chairs standing in front of it.

Harry sat down and waited for the Professor to be seated as well. Harry looked at her insecurely, even though he knew it was really him that should start this conversation. But thankfully, she helped him out.

"So, Mr Potter, what can I do for you today?" She asked seemingly ignoring the Pixie on Harry's shoulder. Then she continued with a hint of amusement in her voice. "Not to alarm you, but there is a Cornish Pixie sitting on your shoulder."

"Yes, Professor, actually, that is why I came to speak to you today. In fact, Hermione suggested that I do come to you."

"Of course she did." Professor McGonagall answered.

"Well, the thing is this, the Pixie on my shoulder seems kind of attached to me."

Harry heard a giggling in the back of his head.

"And you want me to make sure it leaves you alone."

* Seriously, is every witch and wizard to stupid to recognise a girl when they see one? * The shout in his head made Harry flinch.

"Please, Professor, could you refer to her as a she? She is a bit sensitive about that topic."

"What?" The Professor looked back to him with a confused expression.

"Well she is a female Pixie." Harry explained.

The Professor looked back to him quizzically. "And how, pray tell, would you know that."

* OH. MY. FAIRY GODMOTHER. *

Harry flinched again. "She says so." He answered, not wanting to come anywhere close to mentioning the words 'girly parts' in a conversation with Professor McGonagall.

Once more he had a hand on his forehead before he could defend himself. "Are you sure you are feeling alright, Mr Potter? Well, no fever at least. Let's go to Madam Pomfrey. I assure you, Cornish Pixies cannot talk."

Harry thought that this was promising to be a good year if this early everyone already thought he was going crazy. "She says she bonded with me as a true familiar." He brought out as fast as he could to prevent the Professor from pushing him out of her room and towards the infirmary.

At least it worked in so far as the Professor stopped in her tracks. She blinked a few times, then returned to her chair and cleared her throat. "Very well, Mr Potter." She cleared her throat once more, though Harry found that it sounded suspiciously like a suppressed chuckle. "I'm glad you came to me with this… issue."

Harry narrowed his eyes, trying to discern whether his Professor was making fun of him. Looking to his left shoulder, he saw his companion mimicking him.

Professor McGonagall took a few deep breaths before she started talking again. "Well, I'm sure it is not news to you that students are not allowed to have a…" again the clearing of a throat that sounded like a chuckle. "…Cornish Pixie as a familiar."

"That did occur to me." Harry said somewhat drily, not liking the fact that the Professor didn't seem to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

"Ok, I'm sorry, Mr Potter." Obviously having caught the annoyance in Harry's voice. "Would you first allow me to cast a spell to see whether a familiar bond has truly formed?"

Harry looked to the Pixie and heard * Let her. * as an answer in his head. Then he nodded to the Professor. She raised her wand and pointed it at Harry after a rather complicated sounding incantation. First nothing happens, but then Harry saw a purple glow coming from his shoulder. When he looked to where the Pixie was, he saw that the purple aura that had surrounded her when he had first pulled her out of his pocket was back. After ten seconds, it faded again and Harry turned back around to the Professor.

The Professor looked like she was having a hard time to maintain her stern expression. She cleared her throat once more and then said "Well, it seems your little friend is correct. She is indeed bonded to you with a true familiar bond. Though I have never heard of a Pixie binding to a wizard as familiar before."

"So, umm… what happens now?" Harry asked.

"That depends. If you agree and want me to do it, I could break the bond between you and… her."

* I dare you. * The Pixie said threateningly in his head.

"Ahm, no that is fine, Professor."

The Professor seemed slightly surprised at first, but then nodded. "Ok, well then there are still the school rules. You cannot keep… her here as your familiar."

* Well at least she learns faster than you. * The Pixie commented. * Now do something so I can stay. Or else… * She let that thought hang in the air.

"I realise that this is… uncommon. But Pixies are not much more dangerous than cats or owls, are they? I had hoped I could get a special permission from you or the head master."

The Professor again seemed surprised. "Mr Potter, are you sure that's what you want? It might seem funny now, but people might start to talk if it gets known that you have a Pixie as your familiar. Not to mention the amount of chaos that your familiar might produce."

"She promised to not disrupt the proceedings in the school…" Harry quickly said.

* …much. * The Pixie added in his head.

"Mr Potter. Harry." The Professor sighed. "While it is true that we can give special permission for other types of pets that are not deemed to dangerous, especially in cases like this when a familiar bond was established. And while it is also true that your Pixie would fall under that category. Are you sure you want to be known as the boy with the Pixie familiar?"

"Well, it at least sounds more fun than boy-who-lived." Harry said.

"You really want her to stay here with you?" The Professor asked, now totally serious.

Harry thought. If he told the Professor now, and warned her of the wand, it was improbable that the Pixie would be able to do anything. But they had made a deal. And really, she was kind of fun to have around. In a crazy, twisted manner at least. But now was his chance to get rid of her.

* Please… * He suddenly heard in his head and instead of threatening or intimidating it sounded simply pitiful.

Harry turned around to face the little blue being on his shoulder. She looked back to him, her eyes wide, begging him, beseeching him. * Please, I promise I will be good. You won't regret it. Please… *

Really she was not much different from Harry himself. Not wanted by her family for something she could do that they couldn't. And Harry realised with a start that he could give someone the kind of help that had always been denied to him. And maybe he could make a new friend along the way.

He felt a decisive expression settle on his face while the Pixie still looked to him with wide, imploring eyes. He smiled to her and nodded and he could not help but feel good about what he was doing when a grin spread on her little face. "Yes, I'm sure Professor." He said with determination in his voice.

The Professor looked at him for a few seconds, and then she smiled herself. "Very well, Mr Potter. As long as you take good care of your new familiar, I don't have a reason to deny your request. I will grant Permission. What is her name?"

That question surprised Harry. What was her name? He turned his head towards the Pixie, looking at her questioningly.

* I'm your bonded familiar, you should name me. * She said amusedly.

Harry chuckled. "Sorry, Professor, she doesn't seem to have a name yet. Please give me a moment to find one."

Meanwhile, the Pixie had employed her wings and was now again hovering in front of Harry. Harry looked at her contemplatively. "Hmm… how about… Pix?"

She looked back at him as if to say 'Really?'.

"Ok, no… Fay?"

Her scowl deepened.

"Ummm…" Harry had trouble coming up with any names, really. "Blueie?"

* Are you serious? * Meanwhile the Professor seemed to be back to trying not to look too amused.

"Sorry, sorry. Ahm…" He got distracted by the fluttering of her wings. "Buzzy?"

* You suck. * He simply heard in his mind, while this time the Professor had clearly snorted at his suggestion.

"Ok. Wait. Let me think."

* Maybe this time at least something that is a real name? * The Pixie suggested unhelpfully.

"Violett?"

That seemed to make her stop for a second. In the end, she still shook her head no, but at least he was getting somewhere.

"Vera?"

* No. * She said, but he still had the feeling he was not so far off.

"Vi…" He couldn't think of anything other with Vi, but maybe something similar might do? "Vi… Mi… Mira?" He tried.

She thought for a few seconds this time, but again no luck as she shook her head no.

"Vi… Vi…" Harry thought feverishly for other names that really started with Vi… "Vivian?"

She looked back to him wide eyed and then she opened her mouth and Harry saw her actually trying out the name as best as she could, though she didn't seem to make any sound. Finally she looked back to him and nodded her head. * Yes. I like that. Vivian. * She smiled at him and returned to his shoulder, this time she kept standing there, holding on to his hair in order not to fall of.

Once she had settled down, Harry looked to Professor McGonagall, whose eyes for some reason seem to hold something that Harry interpreted as happiness. Was she happy for him?

"Professor, may I introduce you to my familiar, Vivian?"

The Professor nodded and answered. "It is nice to meet you, Vivian." Then she noted the name down on a kind of form. She signed the form and touched it with her wand, which made it fly into one of the folders she had on a shelf behind her.

After smiling at Harry for a few seconds longer, she gathered herself and returned to her usual, stern expression. "Was there anything else I can do for you today, Mr Potter?"

Harry shook his head. "No Professor, thank you."

"Then I suggest you go outside for a while, as long as the weather is still as nice as it is today."

Harry nodded and thanked the Professor again, before he stood up and left the room, with the newly named Vivian still on his shoulder.

* Thank you, Harry. * He heard in his mind, and he felt a small hand stroke over his cheek. He smiled. * Now, let's cause some trouble. *

* * *

 _Hi :) I hope you enjoyed. I know the Pixies are not that dangerous in their official rating (I think 2 stars?), but if I remember correctly Ron and Harry took it upon themselves to add a few stars to that after meeting them in Lockharts class. I hope with me giving her a wand, that everyone can agree Vivian is at least four star dangerous (as asked for in the challenge). I have a few ideas on how to continue, though nothing is yet set in stone, because I have trouble with the next two chapters. This story is meant to cover second year for which I have most of the main points covered, but I am still working on how to get from meeting and introducing more of Vivian to the next main bit, which would be the start of the attacks. I also have ideas for fourth year and the Tri-Wizard though that is far away and would be in a new story/sequel._


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